Yang Yang competed as a short track speed skater for the Chinese national team at the 1994 Winter Olympics, the 1998 Winter Olympics, and the 2002 Winter Olympics. By coincidence, she had a contemporary on the Chinese short track team also named Yang Yang. They were originally referred to as Yang Yang (L) and Yang Yang (S), for "Large" and "Small"; Yang Yang (L) took offense at this and changed her designation to Yang Yang .